Having considered Auditor-General Report 56-62 (2016-17) and 1-16 and 19 (2017-18) on 29 November 2017, the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit resolved to conduct an inquiry based on the above Auditor-General report.

Under section 8(1) of the legislation establishing the JCPAA, the Public Accounts and Audit Committee Act 1951, one of the duties of the Committee is to ‘examine all reports of the Auditor-General (including reports of the results of performance audits) that are tabled in each House of the Parliament’ and ‘report to both Houses of the Parliament, with any comment it thinks fit, on any items or matters in those … reports, or any circumstances connected with them, that the Committee thinks should be drawn to the attention of the Parliament’.